Bear Poachers Grow Bold In Blue Ridge

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY — Away back in the lonesome ridges of Massanutten Mountain, not far from Shenandoah National Park, a young bear cub huddled in a dark hole trembling in fear.

Like all female bears, this young cub could not simply sniff the mild June air to satisfy herself the danger had passed. A million years of inherent curiosity made her rise upon her hind legs to look around as she sniffed the air and, in doing so, she sealed her own fate.

Below the rugged bluff, leaning against a tree while his hounds tried to decipher which way the quarry had gone, a poacher saw the cub rise and he smiled.

He grabbed his lead hound by the collar and pulled it to the cave. Instantly, the vicious old dog plunged into the hole. The sound that spewed from the darkness inside was primeval.

In moments, the remainder of the pack arrived and charged into the hole to help their leader complete the gruesome task.

When it was again quiet high on the ridges of Massanutten Mountain, the hounds filed from the hole, some licking at blood on their whiskers, others spitting out fur and muscle.

The former poacher who related this incident from his past had agreed to an interview only because a state game warden had persuaded him a story about the illegal activities in the Blue Ridge Mountains might help curb the poaching.

Illegal bear poaching has risen so drastically in the last few years that some hunters feel the animals are very close to becoming endangered.

The teeth, claws, hide, feet, and to some extent, the meat itself, can bring unscrupulous hunters anything from a few dollars to thousands of dollars.

An undercover special agent with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Washington, D.C. said if the whole bear could be shipped to Korea, for example, it would fetch as much as $25,000.

Orientals believe the gall bladder ground into powder will serve as an aphrodisiac. The paws are made into soup, the teeth and claws into jewelry, the hide into rugs and the meat served as a delicacy.

Last February, state and federal wardens cracked a ring responsible for poaching 100 bears over a four-year period in and around the Shenandoah National Park. Their crimes violated the Lacy Act against shipping wildlife parts across state lines.

Bobby McCray, 48, of McDowell, and John P. Haden, 58, of Batesville received $10,000 fines and were placed on a year's house arrest.

The nine other men, ranging in ages from 33 to 79, were fined between $250 and $2,000, and given a year's probation.

According to U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson, who prosecuted the case, it was the "most sytematic" bear kill in the Commonwealth and he called McCray the ringleader.

McCray is employed with the maintenance division of the Virginia Department of Transportation in Highland County. His immediate supervisor, Ron Strickler of Verona, said that as long as "the man shows up for work and does his job, no further action is anticipated."

Most poaching occurs in the southern region of the park, and in those counties that border the southern tip. There are 300 square miles within the park boundaries, stretching from Front Royal to Waynesboro.

"Most of the park is pretty rugged, so that makes us an easy target for this sort of illegal activity," said southern district ranger Rick Childs of Elkton. "There aren't any statistics on the number of bears killed illegally, but my gut feeling is that more than a dozen are taken from inside the park each year," he said.

"The poacher himself is also a different breed," he said. "Once we dealt with a lone hunter looking for meat, or for a trophy, but today we're faced with CB radios, tracking devices on the dogs and a smarter poacher."

Col. Gerald Simmons, chief warden for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said poaching statewide was up 50 percent over the last five years. He said the state's bear population was between 2,000 and 2,500 animals, with a legal bear kill of about 500 bears.

"I suspect poachers kill another 200," he said.

Virginia's game department is ranked as one of the top 10 wildlife agencies in the nation, as far as the number of arrests for violations is concerned. In 1983 it was number one, yet, according to Simmons, only about one percent of the illegal activity is ever detected.

Simmons said legislation has been proposed by the department that will add greater strength to the current poaching laws. One would make it a felony to sell $200 in wildlife parts over a 90-day period, the other would outlaw "strike boxes" on pickup trucks and other vehicles.

A "strike box" is a dog box mounted on the front of the vehicle. A dog is placed in the box and the hunter then drives slowly down the back roads until the dog strikes a scent and the whole pack is turned loose to chase down the bear.

A survey done this year shows the Shenandoah bear population as between 500 to 600, up a couple hundred from five years ago.

According to Paul Haskill of the park's resource management office, that is close to the saturation point, but not a cause for alarm.